ABOUT
Hello, I'm Thomas Knoepffler, a design technologist in Miami, Florida. I design physical objects and software tools that respond to the people and spaces around them, working with AI, sensors, and digital fabrication. My recent projects include a 3D-printed hydroponic planter, a desk lamp that senses posture, and a browser tool for building procedural 3D worlds.
I hold an MS in Design Technology from Cornell University and a BS in Integrated Design & Media from NYU, and before graduate school I worked in UI/UX design and product management at an early-stage startup. Outside of studio work I have mentored student designers and volunteered with local creative communities.
I'm currently looking for design technologist and prototyping roles in Miami, Florida, and I'm glad to hear from anyone about the work.
SKILLS
— Rhino 3D, Grasshopper, Blender
— Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma
— 3D Printing, Laser Cutting
— Arduino, Raspberry Pi
— HTML, CSS, JavaScript
— Python, C#
LINKS
Resume
LinkedIn
Instagram
GitHub
Email PRODUCT PROTOTYPING
POSE LAMP
A desk lamp that reads the user’s ergonomic posture through their laptop camera and shifts its color gradient when they slouch. An ambient reminder to sit up that needs no buzz and no intrusive notification.
Read more…STACKAPONICS
A stackable, 3D-printed hydroponic kit for growing microgreens at home. It waters itself by capillary action, with no pump. A domestic product reimagined as a bio-hybrid design object.
Read more…FLUVIAL STUDIES
Material studies on the branching veins of a leaf, asking how the same geometry might build structures that draw water, nutrients, or even information from their surroundings.
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MIXI II
A countertop mixology machine that listens to how someone feels and pours a tea-based drink to match, choosing from a recipe library and dispensing each ingredient by pump.
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GENERATIVE AI TOOLS
HELLO WORLDS
A browser tool for building 3D worlds by wiring algorithms together in a node editor: noise for terrain, L-systems for plants, flocking for creatures, all running live.
Read more…PIX2GRASSHOPPER
A Grasshopper component that takes a photograph of a natural pattern and writes a GhPython script to reproduce it, sliders included, using CLIP to read the image and GPT to write the code.
Read more…
SENTIMENT.JS
A tool for UX designers that takes what a client said in a review, typed or spoken, and returns the emotions in it, the keywords, and how closely it relates to qualities like clarity and usability.
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DESIGN INTERACTIONS
TEXTURE.JS
A servo-driven turntable that draws spirograph patterns from the pressure of objects placed against it, then turns the same readings into a short poem written by an AI. A demonstration of poetic computation.
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HORIZON.JS
A picture frame that shows the color of the sky over any chosen place on earth, right now, and plays an AI-generated soundscape to match. A moment of telepresence.
Read more…